Saturday, October 1, 2011

I've been known to ramble. It's an affliction. There are no simple subjects and there are no simple answers. I'm one of those people that if you ask a question and I decide to answer, it may take a while. I apologize for that, but it is what it is.

So, I'm going to ramble. I hope you enjoy.

A Candle Pot

Untill this year, I had never heard of one. Here's what I learned or think I know after building one and using some on a recent trip...

A candle pot is a candle. It's a large candle. It can be a small campfire.

Grapevine Camp, Colorado River, Grand Canyon

(click photo for full size)It is homemade and has a unique wick. It has to be homemade as only a fool would make one to sell. These things are fire in a can. The wax is candle wax. The wick is cardboard.

(click photo for full size)Here is my ramble that I think will answer the questions you want to ask.

The pot is crucial. Here's the deal... the size of the fire is limited by the surface area of the pot. Accept for the moment that the wick will be able to supply wax to the entire surface of the pot; thus, given the burning characteristics of candle wax, a diameter of about 14" will give you a flame at about the limitation of control-ability. Read that again. Don't use a pot larger than 14" in diameter. (Besides, that would take a lot of wax.) A burning pot is easily extinguished by a deliberate action and a good lid. Read that again. The size of the flame can be regulated by covering portions of the surface with a rock.

Be careful, your pot can become the target of worship. You'll get attached to it, so take some time picking your pot. I used a cookie tin and that actually is almost perfect. The lid can get bent and it feels a little cheensy to receive your labor and worship. The depth of the pot is not that critical. Recently I got a 12" Reviere pot with a lid at a yard sale for a $1. I think I will use that for my next one. I'm going to take the bakelite handles off and attach some sort of wire loop or something that can accept a strap to secure the lid... I'm still thinking on that one... As the pot is a little deep, I'm thinking of filling it with 2 or 3" of sand or cement, before adding cardboard and wax. I may also make a couple of small ones for table candles...
A Couple of Practical PointsThe pot only gets hot around the rim. The bottom may get warm, but not hot. Supplemental wax is key. (I'm going to talk about that in a moment. It's a subject I didn't understand before the trip.)

Now, the wick...

When you get your pot, whatever size and shape you choose, you'll need to fill it with cardboard. The orientation of the cardboard and the manner it is packed are the secrets. In sum, cut long strips of cardboard from any corregated box. (I tried to use plain brown cardboard without print or plastic coatings.) Cut the cardboard so the tunnels of the corregaion are vertical in the pot! Wind up your strips tight and pack them in the center of your pot as the space available gets smaller and smaller. The top of the strips need to form a near flat surface that is about a 1/4 to 1/2" below the top of your pot and or bottom of your lid.

A word about candle wax.

You want cheap wax and generally that's not available locally. I couldn't find any. There was local wax -- but 10lbs would have been expensive. I may order from the Internet in the future but for the one I made, I scarffed some old Ikea candles we had bought a long time ago for power outages. And that's the point, get your wax from everywhere. Thrift shop candles, friends saving old candle butts, yard sales, and Internet... Get all you can. On trips, don't forget to add your bacon grease.

Using the pot.

When you burn a candle pot, the wax on the surface will melt and the tip of the cardboard strips will wick liquid wax up to burn. Getting one started the first time is a bit tricky as you'll need to expose a bit of cardboard to start the process. Once a little flicker starts, soon the whole surface of the pot will be on fire. As the candle burns, the wick will burn down to just above the wax surface. If you do not add any wax, the candle pot will burn down over time. As the ash from the cardboard has no where to go, a burned pot will begin to stifle itself unless you cut out some ash or add more wax. There's the beauty. Just add wax. On a trip instead of having a few people bring candle pots have one and have everyone else bring old wax or bulk wax to add to the group candle pot. Just pitch in chunks of wax on a burning candle. One candle could last forever.

Now, we have this pot full of cardboard, let's fill it up. I did mine on my camp stove. On one one burner, I had a melting pot where I melted all my scraps I could find and those Ikea candles I mentioned. You don't have to boil it, just melt... patience... boiling wax is not a good idea! On another burner I put my pot. The burner was barely cracked -- just enough to keep it warm. AND I didn't light the burner until I did my first pour. That's right, the first pour. First of all, trying to pour a big pot of wax at one time is silly. Second, it won't work. All those vertical tunnels have to burp to fill up and you'll need to do at least two if not three pours to fill a candle pot as the warm wax contracts as it cools. So, do several, if not many, small pours. That will be safer and give you a better pot.

The first lighting of my candle pot.

(click photo for full size)A couple of things. If you buy wax, it's not a cheap fire. If you let water get in a burnt candle, you'll have to use a ground cloth as it will spit wax as the water boils out. The smoke is pretty dark. I wouldn't want to use it inside. But, for a quick fire where a camp fire is not possible, it's great.

Look, there's a lot of stupid about making and using a candle pot. Wax burns. Be careful!

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About me.

I ramble. It's an affliction. What can I say? I was raised in B‘ham during Civil Rights. Everyone was rambling while the world around us changed in ways we never imagined. We rambled in imperfect circles. Men that wore red handkerchiefsaround their necks while in the mines or the fields were compelled to consider the rage of the descendants of slaves. Rambling revealed change towards what was right. Ramble on long enough and you'll discover just about everything. By the time I was 45 I had rambled from tap dancer-to cowboy-to athlete-to scholar-to college drop out-to wilderness adventurer-to millwright-to father-to manager-to lawyer. Along the way I learned to climb and kayak and fly and make dog food and grits and flour and love a woman while bivouacked. I make a mean barbeque and grill steak medium rare. I can blow a harp and take a photograph. I suppose you could say I lack focus, but I prefer to think that I'm just curious. Focus is highly over-rated. Focus gets you a desk job in a small gray cubicle below florescent lights. It doesn't get you life. Life is about four weeks on a raft in the Grand Canyon, the love of a second good woman, the love of children, the crisp spray of water in your face from river or ocean, and thanks from people that spill the wreckage of their life in your lap while seeking justice. Rambling on means never being bored, and there ain't nothing wrong with that.